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H. G. CHRISTIAN, 



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H. G. Christian, 35 Lafayette Pl. 
1882. 






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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by 

H. G. CHRISTIAN, 
In the OfiSce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



E. S. Dodge, Stbam Printer, 95 Chambers St. 



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PREFACE. 



The adulteration of foods is now being carried on in 
such a systematic manner by great dealers and 7nanufac- 
turers, who 7nake it a special business^ that it is almost 
iinpossible to detect adulteratio7is without a co7npetent 
knowledge of the properties of both the pure and the 
fraudulent. 

What is contained herein is what every school- 
boy should be taught^ practical every day knowledge. 

Everybody expects full weight in purchasing his 
groceries, and he has the pleasure of seeing the scales go 
down; but how many are there who can tell 7vhether they 
are buying Butter or Oleomargarine, Cane Sugar or 
Glucose, Jelly or a variety of Glue, Bread from good 
Flour or that which is made from poor Flour cofttaining 
chemicals to make it look whiter and better and to increase 
the iveight, or whether the extensively advertised prepared 
baby foods are what they are represefited to be. 

People will not buy adulterated foods k?towinglyj and 
if conswners were able to detect adulterations, the market 
for fraudulent compounds ivould be spoiled. 

It is hoped that this effort may serve as a means of 
placing the enforcement of the law concerning the sale of 
food into the hands of the people instead of the legislature. 

H. G. C. 

New York, Oct., 1882. 



DOMESTIC TESTS 



FOR 



FOOD ADULTERATIONS, 



BREAD. 

Bread is adulterated with sulphate of copper, and 
alum, and other substances which cost less than wheat flour. 

The most easily applied process of detecting sulphate 
of copper and alum in bread, is that described by Mr. 
Horsley. ' ' A tincture of Logwood is made by digesting 
a quarter of an ounce of freshly cut chips in five ounces of 
methylated spirit, for eight hours, and filtered. A teaspoon- 
ful of this tincture is put with a like quantity of a saturated 
solution of carbonate of ammonia in a wdne glass of water, 
and the mixed solutions, which are of a pink color, are 
then poured into a white ware plate or dish. A slice of 
the suspected bread is allowed to soak in it for five minutes, 
after which it is placed upon a clean plate to drain, and, 
if alum be present, it will in the course of an hour or two 
acquire a blue color ; if the tint be greenish, it is a sign of 
sulphate of copper ; whereas pure bread gradually loses its 
pink color ; but never turns green or blue." 

Sulphate of copper is used by bakers to make very 
white bread. 



Alum is used by bakers to make the loaves of bread 
weigh more by absorbing a larger per cent, of water in a 
way which is not detected by its appearance. 



BABY FOODS. 

Starch is very injurious to babies, consequently any- 
thing they eat should contain as little as possible Bread 
contains too much starch, and a great many of the adver- 
tised foods for babies consist almost wholly of starch, while 
there are others which contain but very little starch, and a 
large proportion of gluten, the most important constituent 
of a genuine baby food. 

Baby foods are easily tested. Put a drop of iodine in a 
quarter of a glass of water, and take about as much of the 
baby food to be tested as could be held on the end of a lead 
pencil. Let a drop of the solution of iodine and water fall 
on the sample ; should it be pure starch it will turn bright 
blue, or should it approximate common flour it will turn 
bluish-purple, and should it be a proper baby food it should 
hardly turn at all. 

BUTTER. 

Pure, unadulterated but is hard to find, and the adul- 
teration is apt to be worse than fictitious coloring. Not a 
scrap of fat is wasted in the butcher shop and slaughter 
house. What formerly went to the soap factory or the can- 
dlemakers, now goes largely to the butterine or oleomar- 
gerine factory, where it is converted into the semblance of 
butter. Properly made, oleomargerine butter may be 
wholesome enough, but much of that found in the market 



is not properly made, and in most cases the buyer is cheated, 
in that he pays for genuine butter and does not get it. 

Foreign fats, as tallow, lard and suet, may be detected 
by filling a small glass about three-fourths full with a sus- 
pected sample ; melt, and while in a molten state place the 
bulb of a thermometer at the bottom, and let the butter 
solidify; the water and curd will appear at the bottom of 
the glass, and if in small quantities is unobjectionable ; the 
butter fat when warmed should have a sweet and agreeable 
odor. 

When the butter has solidified, carefully lay a lead 
bullet, or anything else having about the same weight, on 
the surface of the butter ; then place the glass containing 
the thermometer, butter and bullet in a dish containing 
water of ordinary temperature, the glass not touching the 
bottom of the dish, and the water in the dish to be below 
the top of the glass, and above the surface of the butter 
fat. Now heat gradually, and note the temperature at the 
moment which the bullet sinks to the bottom of the glass. 
In pure butter the temperature should not be higher than 
98°, or lower than 94' F ; but if mixed with foreign fats, 
the temperature will be considerably higher. 

CANDY. 

Candy is well worth testing, as after a few tests like 
those described under sugar, you will be able without the 
tests to detect the glucose, which in some cases is all glucose. 

CHEESE. 

Cheese is now manufactured from lard and oleomar- 
gerine, and a large portion of it is shipped to Europe. 



8 

By separating the fat of the cheese by heating, and 
then testing in the same manner as directed under butter, 
tke foreign fats may be detected. 

CINNAMON, 

Cinnamon bark is thinner and curled together closer 
than its adulterant — cassia bark. 

COFFEE. 

t 

Ground coffee is adulterated with chicory, roasted 

grain, peas, beans, bread, cocoanut shells, date seeds, and 
other substances. An artificial berry is also manufactured 
from vegetable substances by a machine patented in 
England So that even in buying the coffee in the berry, 
it must be closely examined. C hicory itself is adulterated 
with several different substances. But coffee can be esti- 
mated by stirring it in a tumbler of cold water ; after a few 
minutes the coffee will be found at the top and the adul- 
terations at the bottom, excepting those that are dissolved 
giving the water a brownish appearance. 

EGGS. 

Eggs should not be eaten when they will not sink in 
water in which there are three ordinary teaspoonsful of 
salt dissolved ; and to be real fresh should sink with three 
and a half teaspoonsful. 

Fresh fried eggs have a full yolk ; but eggs that have 
been kept a long time have a sunken yolk. Stale boiled 
eggs are told by the empty space at one end. 



9 
FLOUR. 

Flour is adulterated with bean flour, pea flour, and 
plaster of Paris. The former two can be detected only bj^ 
the microscope ; the latter, by washing the flour in water, 
the plaster remains insoluble. 

GINGER. 

Ginger is largely mixed with starch ; the adulteration 
may be detected by a drop of iodine, which will turn the 
starch blue. The iodine solution should be prepared as 
described under baby foods. 

HONEY. 

Honey, comb and all, is now made successfully, (finan- 
cially considered) ; the honey out of glucose, the comb out 
of parafiine, wax, etc. The following test for glucose and 
dextrine may be applied : 

Take equal quantities (weight or measure) of honey 
and water, then add strong spirit, stirring constantly till a 
permanent turbidity is produced ; in artificial honey or 
honey adulterated with glucose, a heavy gummy deposit 
will soon form, while with genuine honey a only slight 
milkiness is produced. 



JELLY. 

Canned jellies and isinglass are now almost wholly 
made from gelatine. Glue is a gelatine of inferior variety. 



10 

Gelatine may be detected in jelly or isinglass by 
putting it in boiling water : The gelatine will smell of glue; 
the jelly will have the same smell as it had before ; isin- 
glass has a fishy smell. 

Gelatine is made from skins which are not fit for 
anything else ; and in France from the bones of slaugh- 
tered horses, flavored to suit the demand. 



LARD. 

Lard may be tested by melting 'it in a glass. It will 
remain tasteless, and without smell, and perfectly trans- 
parent ; but if adulterated with milk of lime, by which 
about twenty-five per cent, of water can be incorporated, 
and the color, when cold, improved, the color of the melted 
lard will be more or less opaque. 



MAPLE SYRUP. 

Maple sugar has the same composition that cane sugar 
has, with the addition of its characteristic flavor. It is 
now bought up in large quantities in the spring of the year 
and shipped to manufacturers of glucose, where it is mixed 
with glucose, the latter constituting a great deal the larger 
proportion. The adulterant, which contains "about forty 
percent, of impurities,"* gives the maple flavored glucose 
a light and bright color, which enables it to be sold in the 
market as the best maple syrup. 

It is tested in the same manner as cane syruj). (See 
Sugar.) 

*Fraukel. 



11 

MILK. 

Milk is adulterated with water, and many times the 
cream is skimmed off. 

The simplest way to test milk is to shake a small quan- 
tity for about half a minute^ then place it in a glass and let 
the cream rise ; the shaking of the milk causes the cream to 
rise quicker, and in a more condensed form. The cream 
should amount to about one-tenth, as it rises above or below 
this, so the milk varies in value. 

After the cream rises, the milk should have a bluish- 
white appearance, and should vary but little, as the solids 
not fat are a very constant datum, while the fat varies in 
opacity with the same quantity under different circum- 
stances. 

MUSTARD. 

Mustard is largely adulterated with starch. The adul- 
teration is detected by letting fall a drop of iodine upon 
the sample; should starch be present the mustard will turn 
blue. The iodine solution prepared in same manner as that 
described under baby foods. 



SUGAR. 

The adulteration of sugar has become so extensive that 
the manufacture of the adulterant glucose has secured the 
greatest investment of capital in Buffalo, N. Y . , and the 
manufacture ranks only second or third in several other 
large cities in northern U. S. Cane sugar is about two and 



12 

half times sweeter than glucose ; besides the glucose itself 
is never manufactured pure, "always containing about 
40 per cent, of impurities.''* These impurities which 
always occur in glucose are lime, copperas, gypsum, dex- 
rine and sulphuric acid. 

Glucose is manufactured from corn in this country. 
The above mentioned chemicals are either used in convert- 
ing the starch into glucose, or are formed while the starch 
is undergoing the chemical change. In 1881, twelve mil- 
lions of bushels of corn were consumed in the manufacture 
of glucose. There is not one honest reason why there should 
be a single glucose factory in the United States, as it is " em- 
ployed almost exclusively as an adulterant of one of the most 
common and important constituents of food '*f As to its 
healthfulness, a glance at the impurities it contains "will 
denounce it at once as very injurious. 

The most inferior grade of glucose is known by its 
moist, soapy and brown appearance. Granulated glucose 
crystallizes imperfectly, is hard and white like loaf sugar, 
and instead of being transparent like cane sugar, is of a 
duU whitish color. Capillair glucose is the best that is 
made; but is not found much in the market. Glucose does 
not dissolve in water readily; when put into tea or coffee it 
remains undissolved at the bottom, thus causing a great 
waste, and if you taste of that which has remained undis- 
solved you will find it has a bitter taste, caused by the im- 
purities of the glucose above mentioned. Glucose may be 
detected by rubbing a sample of sugar together with an 
equal amount of caustic soda or caustic potash in a mortar, 
or other suitable dish ; if glucose is present, the mixture 
turns brown, or yellowish brown ; if not, it remains white. 

*Frankel. \Bosto)i Joxirnal of Cliemislry. 



13 

Or it may be detected by boiling the sugar with a solu- 
tion of caustic soda or caustic potash ; if glucose is present, 
the solution turns brown ; if not, it remains the same. 
After a few tests of this kind, you will, by observing the 
looks of the pure and the fraudulent, be able to distinguish 
the difference between the two without the test. The for- 
mer test is best used for white sugar, while the latter is 
better applied to brown sugar and syrups. 

SYRUP. 

Glucose syrup has a whiter and finer appearance than 
sugar house syrup, consequently when sugar house syrup 
is mixed with it its appearance is improved, and to the ig- 
norant consumer it brings higher prices, while its value is 
greatly decreased. Glucose syrup is a poorer quality of 
sugar than that in the solid form, and is mixed with the 
sugar house syrup in larger quantities than in the best 
qualities of refined cane sugar. The fraud is detected by 
boiling with a solution of caustic soda or caustic potash, as 
directed for sugar ; the effect is the same. 

TEA. 

Tea is not only subject to a general mixture of a little 
of everything, but exhausted tea is re-dried and glazed in 
a very skillful manner, having of course, only about one- 
sixth of its proper strength, with a small proportion of good 
tea to give it a flavor. It is stated in the Plantefs Price 
Current that a sample of tea was wholly composed of the 
following substances : — 

"Iron, plumbago, chalk, China clay, sand, Prussian 
blue, tumeric, indigo, starch, gypsum, catechu, gum, the 



14 

leaves of the camellia, sarangua, chloranthus officinalis, 
elm, oak, willow, poplar, elder, beech, hawthorn and sloe.'' 
From the above it is clearly seen that it is important 
to apply some test, and to do this, tea should be purchased 
in large enough quantities to make the test a success, both 
financially and as regards its quality. 

The following is the usual trade test of infusion : — 
A quantity of tea equal to the weight of a silver dime 
is put into a small covered vessel and infused with about 
four ounces of water for about ten minutes. The infusion 
is then poured off from the leaves, ^nd is examined for 
color, taste and odor. Impurities like iron, sand and dirt 
are easily seen among the leaves, or at the bottom of the 
vessel. All genuine teas possess approximately the same 
amount of theine, consequently, not considering the flavor, 
all teas are equal. It is desirable that the leaf should be 
rolled closely, and should contain very little or no stalk. 

VINEGAR. 

Vinegar is adulterated with glucose-vinegar, cayenne 
pepper, ginger, sulphuric acid, and hydrochloric acid. 

When vinegar is adulterated with glucose-vinegar its 
presence is determined by boiling first, to concantrate the 
vinegar, letting it cool, then mix with two or three times 
its volume of alcohol, which will precipitate dextrine, a 
substance always present in glucose. 

For cayenne pepper and ginger, neutralize the acid 
with common soda. Pure vinegar should then be tasteless. 

For sulphuric acid, add barium chloride, which causes 
a white precipitate. 

For hydrochloric acid, add nitrate of silver, which also 
causes a white precipitate. 



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